Whatever be their rank or worth,
Are kindred and allied by birth,
And made of the same clay.”
It is impossible to imagine two nationalities so far removed from each other in every respect as the English and the Dyak, and yet, when we come to consider their proverbs, we find that they join hands and stand on common ground. Allowing for difference in environment, and consequent difference of similes, the ideas expressed in many Dyak proverbs is precisely similar to that of some well known among the English.
The three following examples, taken from among many others, which are often used by the Dyaks of the present day, will illustrate what I mean:—
Remaung di rumah, rawong di tanah (“A tiger in the house, [but] a frog in the field”). A lion in council, but a lamb in action.
Kasih ka imbok, enda kasih ka manok (“To show kindness to the wild pigeon, [but] not to show kindness to the domestic fowl”). Charity begins at home.
Lari ka ribut nemu ujan, lari ka sungkup nemu pendam (“Running from the hurricane, he encounters the rain; running from a tombstone, he finds himself in a graveyard”). Out of the frying-pan into the fire.
Necessarily, a great deal in human life changes as the years roll on. Science grows, knowledge increases, society makes its way to new forms of organization, and the outward fashions of life pass away, and new ones take their place. All this is obvious and inevitable. And so there must of necessity be many points of difference between primitive races and races high up in the scale of civilization. Yet in human life there are certain things which are always the same. Underneath what is variable in man there is that which never changes. Now and again we catch glimpses of this as we read some ancient author, and find that across the gap of ages lived one who, thousands of years ago, in some respects, at least, thought as we think and felt as we feel. The radical fundamental thoughts and passions of mankind all over the world, in every age, are much the same; and so, after consideration, it ought not to be a matter of surprise to find that some of the Sea Dyak proverbs convey precisely the same ideas as the proverbs of the English.